Over the past few months youve probably seen the buzzword or acronym rather E-A-T floating around While this term has been in the lexicon of many SEOs for quite a while now since the major Google algorithm update in August 2018 AKA the medic update a big bright spotlight has been shone on Googles E-A-T and its been frequently on the lips and fingertips of most SEOs ever since So why am I talking about it now Because the days are long gone when you could pop up on Google overnight To rank well on Google you need to nurture your brand by building its expertise authority and trustworthiness which is exactly what E-A-T stands for In this post Ill cover the three pillars of E-A-T and share tips on how to incorporate each into your content strategy so that you can rank for the best search terms in your industry But first Initially this medic update seemed to have hit loads of websites offering health and medical advice more than any other vertical Therefore acclaimed search engine marketing journalist Barry Schwartz declared it the medic update Yet while this update certainly did hit many medical websites it also hit many other websites that could be categorized under what Google calls YMYL sites yep another flippin acronym and no its not a confused person singing a certain Village People hit Digital marketers are notorious for using jargon and having tons of acronyms but this time it was Google themselves who added these YMYL and E-A-T to the ever-growing pile of potentially-confusing insider lingo YMYL is a quality rating for content that stands for Your Money or Your Life Google doesnt just care about delivering the most relevant information they also want to deliver the correct information With certain types of searches there is a huge potential to negatively impact users happiness health or wealth in other words were these pages low quality they have the potential to impact a users well-being So when it comes to health financial issues and safety Google doesnt want to serve up links to pages that share uneducated advice opinions or potentially fraudulent websites Google wants to be as certain as possible that they are recommending sites that display a high level of expertise authority and trustworthiness which is what E-A-T stands for Its Googles way of protecting searchers from low-quality content that has the potential to be detrimental to a searcher If your business falls under the umbrella label of happiness health or wealth then E-A-T might be vital for you to understand so keep reading Googles E-A-T and YMYL Google search quality evaluator guidelines E-A-T and YMYL came from a very important Google document known as the Google Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines Back in 2015 Google officially released its Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines and this gave us an idea of what is deemed to be a high or low quality website from Googles perspective Check out this article from 2015 on the Moz blog 30 Important Takeaways from Googles Search Quality Raters Guideline for an insight into their importance and why us SEOs need to take these guidelines seriously The document was written for their human rating team who are performing important searches all day long and evaluating websites which top the Google results for those searches Apparently there are about 10 000 people employed by Google to carry out these spot-checks a process which is designed to check up on the ranking algorithms effectiveness in recognizing web page quality The learnings from the quality rating team inform Googles engineers on how to improve the ranking algorithm As the folks at Google often remind us their ranking algorithm is a continuously improving process with updates made very regularly Check out Marie Haynes talk at Brighton SEO 2018 where she breaks down the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines for us in plain English with some of her own insights The 2018 update to the guidelines A week after the July 2018 update to the guidelines Google made some additions that carried some significant impact The quality evaluators would now be asked to review not only a websites E-A-T but also the content creators E-A-T too This is huge news So from now on Google wants to see who the author of a pages main content is and what their credentials are with regards to the subject matter particularly if its a YMYL subject This means that we should now be building up author E-A-T as well as website E-A-T Some ways you might achieve this is by having author boxes with links to author profiles elsewhere online and using author schema markup ie structured data that tells Google all about the author making it easier to connect the author with any other authority signals such a author profiles on authority sites social media profiles etc Above is an example of a good author profile KB1 given to Google quality evaluators in the guidelines It declares who has written this content and shares some credentials Its very easy for an algorithm to connect the dots and find this author on other websites something we assume Google does Did you know E-A-T is mentioned 186 times in the QRG pictwittercom Nze7fQzoTo Marie Haynes Marie_Haynes October 11 2018 One key takeaway or concept from this document is E-A-T As Marie Haynes tweet points out the term E-A-T is used 186 times in the guide Theres no question that this is an important criterion for how a pages quality is perceived by Google So lets be sure we understand what Google E-A-T is exactly Expertise To be an expert is defined by the Oxford dictionary as being very knowledgeable about or skillful in a particular area However possessing this knowledge alone is not going to get traffic flooding to your website from Google You need to understand how to communicate this knowledge in a way that engages people It comes down to not only having the information but also knowing what your audience wants and how best to deliver the information to them Whenever a Googler is asking the question How can my site improve its rankings the stock answer most often seems to be something like Create great content that your audience loves While this may seem like an overly-simplistic answer and it is its an answer which pretty much sums up what Im writing about in this post to be honest How do we create expert content Well here are a few tips to answer that question Find out what your audience is searching for then meet and exceed their needs This begins with keyword research Try to understand the searchers intent behind the terms you discover during that keyword research You should understand what stage these searchers are at in their journey as a consumer or as somebody getting involved in your industry There are a plethora of situations here depending on your exact case but if youre targeting for example a search term that clearly is for somebody who is new to the subject matter then try not to use too much jargon and or gloss-over points that a novice is unlikely to understand Find the balance between being comprehensive while keeping it simple This comes down to formatting your text so its digestible using visual aids or rich media like video or audio A perfect example of this is Mozs Whiteboard Friday series We want the consumer of the content to truly understand the subject by the end without making it too laborious Think about the next queries a searcher might have and have content ready to answer that too Suitable supplementary content should be internally linked and easy to access Its all about becoming the go-to source of information in your field Authority Being an expert is great but its only the beginning When other experts or influencers in your vertical are citing you as a source of information or when your name or your brand becomes synonymous with the relevant topics then you are not just an expert youre the authority Here are some of the KPIs when it comes to judging your authoritativeness Links from relevant and authoritative websites are of course a huge factor when it comes to ranking websites and we certainly cant discuss any framework for SEO success without emphasizing this Note When we talk links its all about building your domains authority This means we want relevant websites who have gained authority in the space already to recommend us and there is no better endorsement that a website can get from another website owner than a link While links are ideal simply being mentioned in the news or on authoritative websites in your space will still boost your authoritativeness in Googles eyes So mentions are also something to strive for We can use the Moz Domain Authority score to help us understand the authority of a website It can be used for a quick look at our own website or for the websites linking to us and gives us an idea of the current level of authority Another reliable gauge of authority and trustworthiness is the Majestic trust ratio score If you can get a score close to 10 you know things are going well If your content is widely shared genuinely and consistently across social media this is also a sign of growing authority Building a brand is a good idea for many reasons not least for SEO authority Branded search volume is a good measure of how your brand authority is doing If more and more people are searching for your brand name this is amazing news If theyre searching for your brand name with a relevant keyword attached thats even better Having a Wikipedia page for your brand and or the people in your company is a big signal that youre an authority Keep in mind getting a Wikipedia page is not easy unless youre a recognized person brand However this does come up within the Google raters guidelines so it is something to strive for Trustworthiness Proven trustworthiness is really important While expertise and authority are factors that boost your rankings trustworthiness or rather a lack thereof is what can easily tank your rankings on Google If you dont reign-in any negative sentiment around your business you will suffer on Google Fundamentally you need to be delighting your customers and if you have any complaints you should address them before you end up with too much negativity attached to your brand Google is very clear about this in their guidelines too many bad reviews is a sign of low quality Positive reviews on places like Tripadvisor Trustpilot Facebook Google My Business and so on are going to really help If youre operating in the US Canada or Mexico then you should be encouraging good reviews on bbborg specifically The Better Business Bureau is the go-to source for customer sentiment for Google as referenced several times in their search evaluators guidelines Some ways that we can promote trustworthiness on our website are Having a clear way to make contact with the website owners Associating the website with a physical location ie your office or store address Having a term of business or T Cs page which is easily accessible to users usually from the footer Making sure your websites domain is secure Correctly implementing HTTPS is very important to Google and helps to ensure any data your users input wont be intercepted by a nefarious 3rd party entity Having a privacy policy which is clearly accessible usually from the footer If youre accepting transactions you should have clear refunds and returns policies If youre selling products try to include comprehensive specifications of the product and include any safety advice that might be relevant If youre sharing knowledge in general its a good idea to have an author biography included and to cite external sources where relevant Linking out to authority sites is a good thing The Wolfgang essential takeaways If youre sharing information on a subject particularly medical health and financial related matters you need to have proven expertise authority and trustworthiness for Google to recommend your content When Google recommends a page to a searcher they dont want them to read false information fake news especially when it could impact their health finances or happiness Bad advice is never good but when it comes to these topics its the worst Following E-A-T as a framework when working on your businesss digital marketing means youre taking a holistic approach to SEO and content marketing Covering these three pillars is a smart thing to do particularly if you want to rank pages on Google for the best search terms in your industry It may come as bad news for those in the game for a quick win but expertise authoritativeness and trustworthiness take time to build and nurture with no real shortcuts this is important to remember Long gone are the days where you can pop-up overnight and take over Googles results pages The E-A-T criteria by definition means incrementally growing a brand and a positive online presence in a natural way The good news however is that if you do this right and achieve a high E-A-T it will hard to get knocked down from the top spots of Google